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Library | Material Type | Item Barcode | Shelf Number | Location |
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Searching... North Park Library | Teen book | 38674130199597 | YA FICTION VANCE | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
There is a world behind the canvas. Past the flat façade and the crackling paint is a realm where art lives, breathes, creates, and destroys.
Claudia Miravista loves art but only sees what is on the surface--until the Dutch boy Pim appears in the painting in her room. Pim has been trapped in the world behind the canvas for centuries by a power-hungry witch, and he now believes that Claudia is his only hope for escape. Fueled by the help of an ancient artist and some microwaveable magic, Claudia enters the wondrous and terrifying world behind the canvas, intent on destroying the witch's most cherished possession and setting her new friend free. But in that world nothing is quite as it appears on the surface. Not even friendship.
Revel in the mystery and adventure of an alternate world where famous paintings come to life in Behind the Canvas by Alexander Vance!
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-Aiming to do for art history what Rick Riordan's "Percy Jackson" series (Disney-Hyperion) has done for Greek mythology, Vance's novel follows its 12-year-old protagonist, a budding artist named Claudia Miravista, into a world where famous artists and art iconography come to life as dynamic, idiosyncratic characters. When she unexpectedly spots a living boy, Pim, peering out from the background of a painting at the local museum, Claudia is unexpectedly drawn into both a friendship and an interdimensional conflict, which requires her to join Pim in a mysterious realm built by the imaginations of every major artist since the Renaissance. Initially bogged down by a great deal of explanatory setup (necessary to make such an abstract conceit stick), Vance's story flares to life when Claudia crosses into the canvas for the first time. Soon, she's trading gossip with the Mona Lisa, befriending one of C.M. Coolidge's poker-playing dogs, and running from a particularly frightening Max Ernst creation-all to free Pim from the clutches of an evil artist-witch named Nee Gezicht. Helped along by tongue-in-cheek footnotes from a fictional art encyclopedia, adventurous readers will end up learning a great deal about art history along the way. VERDICT A conventional misfit-turned-hero tale elevated by an inspired concept.-Abigail Garnett, Brooklyn Public Library © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Claudia Miravista, a lonely sixth-grader who loves creating and viewing artwork, becomes involved in an unusual task: rescuing a boy named Pim from a mysterious land behind the world's art canvases. At the local art museum, Claudia's classmates laugh at her when she tells them that she saw a blue-eyed boy staring out from a painting of three Dutch gentlemen. However, the observant art curator realizes that Claudia has a special gift, and he ensures that Claudia meets his wise, ancient grandmother. Granny Custos gives Claudia a bit of esoteric information and a quest, helping Claudia travel into Pim's world. From the start, dangers lurk at every turn, as Claudia becomes physically entangled with famous paintings such as Rubens' Saint George and the Dragon and Ernst's Fireside Angel. How powerful is the evil Nee Gezicht, and is Pim trustworthy? There are moments of extreme silliness, as when the Mona Lisa reveals an unexpected "loogie-hocking surfer chick" persona. The cinematic, cliffhanger adventure concludes in a way that only the most nave readersand Claudiawill not expect; character development throughout is given less attention than action and art. Readers will find themselves searching out art-history textbooks or the Internet for visuals to accompany the descriptions of art and art movements. Numerous footnotes from a fictional Dr. Burkhardt's art-history book are both informative and funny. Plenty of vivid, painterly action scenes carry the day. (Fantasy. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Claudia Miravista has always been a loner, so she doesn't mind being the only student without a partner for the class project at the art museum. She relates to paintings better, anyway, and she even has a one-sided conversation with a boy in the painting she is studying. But she's startled to see him in another painting, especially when he starts talking back. Trapped in a world of paint and canvas for centuries by an evil witch, the boy begs Claudia to help him escape. She doesn't think twice about rescuing her only real friend, but first she needs to find a way into his world. This well-paced mystery offers a pleasing protagonist and a very unusual setting. Vance cleverly injects the story with a bevy of secondary characters, many of whom readers will recognize from European paintings and popular art, and humorous footnotes from a fictional art-history textbook balance the tension. Themes of trust and loyalty figure prominently in this story, which explores what it means to be a true friend.--Hayes, Summer Copyright 2015 Booklist
